he lost to john mccain that year. but that year, 2008, also was not john mccain's first effort at winning the republican presidential nomination. he had run before as well. he had run in the year 2000, when he lost to george w. bush. and while that john mccain campaign and his loss that year has mostly been remembered for the egregiously racist dirty tricks played against john mccain in the south carolina primary that year, that's mostly what we think of when we think of him losing to george w. bush that year, now what is starting to become the more salient thing about that losing run, about that losing attempt at winning the republican presidential nomination, what seems more salient now is who john mccain's national co-chair was for that run. it was republican senator chuck hagel. there he is. you can see him in the little circle on the left there. with john mccain's entourage as john mccain was getting ready to launch his presidential bid back in 2000. this is the same chuck hagel who is president obama's nominee f